United States’ Ashton Eaton gestures after his overall win following the men’s 1500-meter decathlon at the World Athletics Championships in the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2013. AP
MOSCOW – With a world championship title to go along with his Olympic gold medal, Ashton Eaton has now won all there is to win in the decathlon.
The American completed his collection Sunday at the world championships with a season-leading total of 8,809 points in an event many consider to be the toughest there is.
“It feels good. It was the last thing I had left on my list to do,” said Eaton, who rallied after a relatively sub-par first half of the two-day competition. “Now I’ve done everything there is to do in multi-events.”
Michael Schrader of Germany won the silver medal with 8,670 points in his first major championship since the 2008 Beijing Olympics in an injury-plagued career. Damian Warner of Canada earned the bronze with 8,512 points.
Both Schrader and Warner recorded personal bests and won their first major medals.
When the competition began Saturday, Eaton struggled in the high jump before finishing Day 1 with a slim nine-point lead.
“I was just going through the motions,” Eaton said. “I realized I couldn’t do that. Going into the 400 meters I decided to be competitive again.”
In the final event of the first day, Eaton clocked 46.02 seconds in the 400 — the fastest time at that distance in a decathlon at the world championships — and regained the lead for good.
On Sunday morning, he stretched it even more when he ran the fastest time of 13.72 seconds in the 110 hurdles despite clipping the second obstacle.
Eaton knew he had sealed the title when he had a solid pole vault of 5.20 meters and then threw 64.83 meters in the javelin, the penultimate of the 10 events.
After cruising home in the 1,500 meters, he draped himself in an American flag and congratulated his competitors, a tradition in one of the most demanding events in sports.
“It’s just good to finish with the decathlon guys, they are a great group of guys, anywhere we compete, whether it’s the world champs or the Olympics,” Eaton said. “It’s just great to finish with them.”
Eaton broke the world record last year at the U.S. Olympic Trials with a score of 9,039, and then confirmed that performance with a gold medal at the London Olympics.
The American came to Moscow sitting only 13th place on the world list, with a season-best of 8,291 points for the title at the U.S. nationals.
Having done the job he came to do, Eaton can now sit back and watch his wife of one month, Canadian hepthathlete Brianne Theisen. She starts competing Monday.
For the Americans, it was the fifth decathlon world title in the last six competitions, and third straight.
Two-time defending champion Trey Hardee started competing Saturday but dropped out with a hamstring injury before the end of the first day.